Hollywood In Mourning: Elizabeth Taylor Dead At 79

Hollywood starlet Elizabeth Taylor has died at the age of 79.

The veteran actress, known for movies including “National Velvet” and “Celopatra” had been suffering from congestive heart failure and had been hospitalized two months ago in Los Angeles.

Taylor’s rise to to fame began when she was just 12 years old, and she was sometimes called the most beautiful woman in the world.

Her last acting performances on screen were in U.S. television productions in 2001.

Her acting won her several Oscars. She also gained notoriety for her eight marriages.

In later years, she was a spokeswoman for humanitarian causes, notably AIDS research. That work gained her a special Oscar in 1993.

Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor was born in Hampstead, a wealthy district of North West London, the second child of Francis Lenn Taylor and Sara Viola Warmbrodt, who were Americans residing in England.

Her parents were originally from Arkansas City, Kansas. Her father was an art dealer and her mother a former actress whose stage name was ‘Sara Sothern’. Sothern retired from the stage when she and Francis Taylor married in 1926 in New York City. Taylor’s two first names are in honor of her paternal grandmother, Elizabeth Mary (Rosemond) Taylor

With additional reporting